Virginia Eggertsen Sorensen was born to be a writer.

According to her mother, Virginia's first complete sentence was "Tell me a story." A few months later, Virginia said "I will tell you a story!"

Born in Provo, Utah, on Feb. 17, 1912, Virginia had a Mormon upbringing. Her father, Claude Eggertsen, was schooled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

After spending her formative years in three small Utah towns, she matriculated to Brigham Young University and graduated in 1934, having spent one interim college year at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

While a senior at BYU, Virginia married Frederick C. Sorensen, a 1928 graduate of Utah State University. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born on the day Virginia expected to participate in graduation exercises.

While Fred was attending graduate school at Stanford University, Virginia enrolled in a writing class taught by experimental poet Yvor Winters. Frederick Sorensen Jr. was born in Palo Alto in 1936, two years before his father earned a Ph.D. in English literature.

The Sorensens moved to Terre Haute in 1938 when Fred Sorensen accepted a faculty position at Indiana State Teachers College. They lived at 2327 College Ave.

For Fred and Virginia, it was a crucial period in their respective lives.

Emma Baker Sorensen, Fred's mother, moved with them, bringing with her a few family heirlooms: a silhouette of her grandmother Mercy French Baker, Mercy's sewing chest, and a deed from Mormon prophet Joseph Smith to her grandfather Simon Baker.

A graduate of Columbia University in domestic science, Emma took care of the home and the Sorensen children, allowing Virginia to concentrate on writing. Each weekday for nearly three years she secured herself in a "little tower room in the Humanities building," probably Stalker Hall, to research and create.

Virginia studied the Baker family history, newspapers from Nauvoo, Ill., the Book of Mormon, reports of Smith's visions and his murder in June 1844. She was treading new ground. No biography of Smith had been written. She spent a month in Nauvoo, exploring its legends, layout, flowers and trees.

As her manuscript was nearing completion, Virginia attended a faculty writers' conference where a colleague showed it to guest lecturer Burgess Johnson. After reading several chapters, Johnson passed it on to Albert Knopf, a New York publisher.

Virginia was stunned to receive a call from book editor Harold Strauss a few weeks later. The manuscript had been written without punctuation, borrowing the style of popular contemporary author e.e. cummings.

Once a meeting was arranged, Strauss was as impressed by Virginia as he was by her novel. "You are exactly the sort of person your manuscript hinted you might be," he wrote. "A person in love with life for its own simple and wonderful sake."

Fred suggested the title: "A Little Lower than the Angels." The manuscript was edited and punctuated. Virginia dedicated it to "Mother Sorensen." The book was published in May 1942, receiving much critical acclaim from the Eastern press.

Milton Rugoff of the New York Herald Tribune said it was "a novel of distinction." Walter Prescott of the New York Times identified Virginia Sorensen as "one of a small handful of rising stars." Wallace Stegner of The Saturday Review called the book an "admirable first novel real enough to make the average historical novel look like Grandfather's stuffed Sunday shirt." Newsweek said it was "poignantly human."

Louis B. Salmon of The Nation called it "a stirring tale of quiet heroism." Clifton Fadiman of The New Yorker asserted it "convincingly explored the mind of Mormon women confronted with the tragic, comic and grotesque problems of plural marriage."

Reactions were different in Utah. Mormon publications either ignored it or were openly critical. The Desert News and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints censured her for "lack of understanding." Particularly shocking were "words of love" spoken by prophet Smith "to a mortal woman."

"The Powers have Spoken!" Virginia wrote to Strauss. "A virtual excommunique!"

Despite its Utah critics, the first printing sold out. The book was reprinted by Grosset & Dunlap in 1943. Sorensen continued to focus on conflicts between individualism and the Mormon society in three later novels: "On This Star" (1946); "The Evening and the Morning" (1949); and "Many Heavens" (1954).

Meanwhile, the Sorensens left Terre Haute when Fred accepted a position at Michigan State in September 1944. Restless and allegedly developing an addiction to alcohol, he later taught in Denver, at Auburn University and at Edinboro State in Pennsylvania.

The couple divorced in 1959 after 25 years of marriage. Virginia moved to the MacDowell Writers Colony in Petersborough, N.H., where she met and wed British novelist Alec Waugh in 1969. Among Waugh's best-known works are "Island in the Sun" and "The Fatal Gift." During the '70s, the couple lived in Tangier, Morocco.

Twice Virginia was awarded Guggenheim fellowships. The first resulted in "The Proper Gods" (1951), about a Yaqui Indian's effort to recover his ancestral traditions.

The second supported research in Denmark, enabling her to recreate the lives of Danish converts to Mormonism during the 1850s in "Kingdom Come" (1960). Her other novels include "The Neighbors" (1947) and "The Man with the Key" (1974).

The winner of an O. Henry Award, Virginia also published seven children's books. "Plain Girl," the 1955 Child Study Association Award winner, addressed conflicts within a Pennsylvania Amish community.

"Miracles on Maple Hill" was winner of the coveted John Newbery Medal in 1957.

Shortly after Waugh died in 1981, Virginia Sorensen was "rediscovered." Her semi-autobiographical essays in "Where Nothing is Long Ago" (1963), and her other major works including "A Little Lower than the Angels" suddenly became classics. She now is referred to as "Utah's First Lady of Letters." She often was feted in her native state.

Having long abandoned Mormonism and living in Florida where she died on Dec. 24, 1991, Virginia was buried at her request in Provo where, finally, she was appreciated.